his bosom then Christ doth the helping of poor wretched burdened sinners the binding up and mollifying their maladies Some are bound fast enough to a business by their word but not at all by their affection and these though they keep their word yet it is in such a rough churlish way as is much discouraging but it is not so with Christ because he is under the bond of his bowels and affections as well as under the bond of his word and therefore trust in him that your case shall be helped and very carefully and compassionately helped Finally Confider the danger of not believing in this able One. You become debtors to the Law to fulfill it and debtors to your own desperate wretched condition as not self murderers to deliver your selves from the body of death in which you are and from the wrath of God to which this obligeth you You frustrate the Ordinance of God which he hath anointed and appointed for your good You cast your selves under the Covenant of works as that young Man which said to Christ What shall I do to be saved As if he could have saved himself and so made himself a debtor to fulfill the Law and Christ put him upon it seeing he would that way be saved and so he will serve you and them Confider whether you be able to keep the Law in every point and so restore your own state some are at the Doctrin of Perfection but they make void the Gospel and Christ and will as the young Man miâ—s perfection in one thing at least one thing will be wanting and he that fails in one Point is guilty of all and will bring the curse of the breach of the whole Law upon him Confider that by nature you are the Children of wrath and Transgressors from the Womb and how soon may the curse of this state be executed Wherefore I conclude all with the repetition of the promise again to you Isa 25.6 7 8. And I beseech you heed it well and take hold of it for your good And in this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make a Feast to all People a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of marrow and he will destroy in this Mountain the face of the covering cast over all People and the Vail that is spread over all Nations and he will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe all teares from all Faces and the rebuke of his People shall he take from all the Earth for the Lord hath spoken it and let me add his heart and soul is in it Jer. 3â— 41 What is the Vail that covereth all Nations Ans The Vail of natural corruption the Body of Death as the Apostle here calleth it and as this Prophet in this place calls it Death and saith it shall be swallowed up in victory yea he hath engaged to wipe all teares from all Mourners eyes who sigh and take on as this Apostle because of their wretched condition and to give them victory over the body of this death and the triumphs of this great victory in this World or in the World to come Comfort your selves all ye that groan under the Body of Death with these words FINIS SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS OF DEATH Being A SERMON ON Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come Isaiah 57.1 The righteous Man perisheth and no Man layeth it to heart and merciful Men are taken away none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come THe general Mortality of Man-kind and the Holy Use that should be made thereof by all the living are the two principal things of this verse Death takes away the wicked and doubtless the wicked and others too should lay this to heart for Death is no partial Visitor if it fetch off one wicked Man and send him to his place it will fetch down another nothing is more naturally the wages of wickedness than death and yet no worse enemy to any wicked Man than death therefore one wicked Man should be startled much at the death of another But Death sometimes taketh away all Men and then all Men bad and good should be much moved then all should lay to heart this i.e. should be sensible of their sin and the displeasure of God and speedily make peace with him by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that so present evils and also future presaged by present strokes may be turned away which thing this People could not be stirred up unto which was the reason of the complaint of this Prophet he preached the Funerals of the dead the best dead to the living good and bad but no man laid it to heart that is not held themselves deeply concerned to look about them to search their Souls to set House and Heart in order to die but kept on every one in his wonted pace of sin and wickedness and formality in Religion and so fell most of them in the common calamity The Doctrines which may be observed in these words are these First That God sometimes by common calamity taketh away the good as well as the bad Moses and Aaron as well as the mixed Multitude which murmured Did the Lord take off and would not let them come in to the good Land The righteous Man perisheth as if the Prophet had said the Lord strikes more mortally than any one is well aware he plucks up the stakes in the Hedg he pulls down the Pillars of the whole Nation and yet Men do not fear that all will fall about their Ears Hence it is that another Prophet calls upon the best People to look about them and to labour to be much better yet gives them but a may be for their safety Seek meekness all ye meek of the Earth ye which have wrought his judgments seek meekness seek righteousness it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's wrath As if the Prophet had said I cannot ensure the life of the best Man because God sometimes destroyeth the righteous with the wicked for ends best known to himself This should make us all fear and tremble much in this dying Day and to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure and to be getting Oyl into our Lamps yea and to keep them trim'd and to stand guirt and ready to go in with the Bride-groom if call'd at Mid-night by the destroying Angel that is now abroad A Second Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That gracious Men and merciful are the likeliest to scape best in times of common calamity The Prophet seems to note it in these words of my Text as very severe Justice that gracious and merciful Men should not be distinguished from others in the Day of evil The righteous Man perisheth and
merciful Men are taken away As if the Prophet had said now the Lord is very angry indeed that he will not spare such as these which are so precious in his eye if any be Noah a righteous Man was preserved from the Flood And Lot a righteous Man preserved and plucked out of Sodom and had there been Ten righteous more the Cities might have been saved for their sake as the Ship full of Passengers for Paul's sake And Ebedmelech the Black more a merciful Man was saved from the destructions which destroyed Jerusalem and so was Jeremiah This should incite all People as they love their lives in this dying day to labour after grace and to be merciful Men and Women yea bountiful in this day of want for such as are ready to yield themselves thus to the Scepter of Christ and to follow him fully with all they have and are will certainly scape best such as yield all to the Lord will save all if any do You that become of prophane righteous and holy Men you take the likeliest way I know to escape well in this mortal time If you get not your lives you will get your Souls for a Prey no Plague shall come nigh that thus are you lodged safe in the Promise as soon as you become gracious and break off from your wicked ways by repentance And you that are gracious and godly think on 't as you love your lives in this day of mortality shew your Faith by your Works abound in this gift also of mercifulness many that are able and carry the Bag are abroad and I fear have carrâ—ed the Bag with them you that are here had need be the more merciful Man's poor will starve else Surely such as are ready to preserve the lives of others God will preserve their lives A Third Doctrin that may be observed in these words is this That times of general security under present lesser punishments are of very evil presage If when God's Judgments are in the Earth righteous Men and merciful be taken away and none lay these drops of the storms to heart it fore-rells surely that the Storm will come and fall hard and Thunder and Hall much Surely some great Evils are at Door when little ones are made light of though I cannot call the taking away of one righteous Man in this day nor the taking away of one merciful Man or Woman in this day a little punishment Dictum cum vulgo I speak after you if lesser Rods make no Body feel great ones surely are a making Righteous Men are taken away and none consider that they are taken from great Evil to come Sometimes with a foolish Virgins slumber the good become bad in this that they lay not GOD's dealings to heart as they should but let Death like a Moth stilly take away one and then another and make no noise in Heaven about it good People are much in a hurry with this World one about his Farm and another about his Merchandise and whilst running here and there hither and thither the King of Syria is gone the matters which should have been close kept to the heart are slipt away out of the mind and made no use of And such a temper among the Lord's People as well as others is a sure fore-runner of some roufing Judgment at Door that may well awaken every Body the Storm begins to come in among you Citizens now I hope you will be awake anon the Plague hath kept in the out-parts a good while O that we in the in-parts within these Walls had been well awake then and laid matters to heart then as we should The Doctrin which I would stand on is this That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart Mortal strokes upon all good as well as bad should much affect all good and bad The Strokes of God in this Prophet's time when he spake the words of my Text began to be general God spared not righteous nor wicked and God thus promiscuously smiting the Prophet was troubled that Men were no more affected as well he might From whence I observe That general Mortality should be generally laid to heart No Man high or low good or bad but should much lay to heart all the strokes of God which bring death that great blow to Man's Beeing Mortality by Plague Sword Famine or any other way or by any other Disease should be well considered and well made use of especially if it reach the righteous as well as others The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but Prophesie Amos 3.8 Nature teacheth this in all Creatures that when such Creatures of prey are abroad which they know they are in danger of to be preyed upon to dread and tremble and to take all care they can to shun them and to save themselves The Prophet Mica who Prophesied in the same time with Isaiah which so complained in my Text complaineth just like him and almost in the same words Mica 7.2 The good Man is perished out of the Earth and there is none upright among Men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every Man his brother with a Net c. As if the Prophet had said Good men perish out of the Earth and this is so far from being laid to heart and lookt upon as any judgment that all violences are used to take away the rest every one lieth in wait for blood yea the blood of his Brother as Cain lay in wait for his Brothers blood And where will this end And by this grief of this Prophet I gather that general Mortality the perishing of good Men and the perishing of others by violences and murders and such like ought much to affect the living and not the lives of all sorts to be taken away and made no more of than of Dogs or Hogs by the death of which there is an advantage By this Prophet Isaiah we may see this Doctrin again confirmed that general strokes should generally affect Isa 64 9 10 11. Be not wrath very soon O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold we bessech thee we are all thy People Thy holy Cities are a Wilderness Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a desolation the holy and beautiful House our Fathers worshipped thee is burnt with Fire and all our pleasant things laid wast The Prophet â—n these words speaketh prophetically and beholdeth and representeth that which was to be as done namely the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and that state Persons and things one and all and how doth he speak of this general Mortality of Persons and things good and bad high and low Doth he speak of it slightly O no but with much complaint and strong cry and bemoans to God Be not wrath very sore O Lord be not angry for ever Zion is a Desolation Jerusalem a Wilderness c. In these Desolations as you know by the Scripture there was Death by Plague Sword and
give him a stone This is reason But much more can faith help it self by experience I am a man in authority and I say to one man go and he goeth and I say to another come and he cometh c. This is experience and faith is wonderful weak indeed when it cannot thus help up it self experiences are such sensible and such impressive things upon all powers within and without O ye of little faith do ye not remember the five loaves and how many Baskets ye took up Mat. 16. Christ takes it for granted that faith is very little and very weak indeed when it cannot help it self by experiences things which the Man hath had done for him in his wants He delivered me from the Lyon and the Bear and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistim The Lord even Jesus who appeared to thee in the way he hath sent that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost Act. 9.17 Doubtless that experience which he had of such an escape going to Damascus advantaged his faith all his days to look thorow and to run thorow all the storms and perils which afterward he met withall Some great sickness the Apostle Paul had by the ill usage of Men who oppressed him and yet God preserved and how he raised faith by experience to look thorow all evils present and to come see 2 Cor. 1.9 10. We would not have you ignorant of the troubles which happen'd unto us in Asia how that we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired ever of life but we had the sentence of death in our selves that we should not trust in our selves but in God that raiseth the dead who deliver'd us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us Mordecai is called Pethakia because saith the Jews he opened and expounded all matters and understood 70 Languages Experience may be called Pethakiah it doth so interpret all Ridles and dark matters both of the word and works of God it explains and interprets 70 and 70 Languages if there be so many worth the interpreting it makes a Man with ease and triumph to look thorow and over all before it though never so dark and difficult as David over Goliah and Zerubabel over that great Mountain which was before him and Joshuah the High Priest over sin and Satans occasions Is not this a brand pluckt out of the Fire Fourthly By Prayer doth a believer come to this good eye-sight to look thorow all dark and difficult matters When I cry to thee then shall mine enemies turn back this I know for God is for me Psal 56.9 David had cryed to God as one once did a little before an engagement and he knew he should have the day and that his enemies would turn their backs great clearing of fight is made by prayer and tears in dark days to see thorow matters A little wind overthrows not only Houses but States and Kingdoms saith Seneca A little of this wind I mean the pantings and prayings of God's People to Heaven overthrows Persons and Nations indeed and is a sure prognostick of good to whom a praying spirit is given and makes in the heart an assurance of good coming My soul followeth hard after thee thy right hand upholdeth me then observe what he saw Those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the Earth Psal 63.8 9. Whether that were Hell or the Grave or both 't was well the Church and David were rid of them Prayer is an Ordinance by which the Soul goeth to Heaven and then gets a new life and strength before it comes down again Christ found the blessing of this Ordinance oft and hath surely sanctified it to all his for the same end to lift up their heads and hearts above all troubles He shall cry unto me thou art my Father my God the Rock of my Salvation and I will make him my first born higher than the Kings of the Earth Psal 89.26 The whole course of Nature began with the motion of the Heavens and continues still vigorous according to the continued motion of them Now as the motion of the Heavens is to the whole course of Nature so is Prayer to all the graces of the Soul and to the whole course and state of the new World it is this that sets all graces a going and going true and strong let weather be what it will Hence are those pertinent words of David Trust in the Lord at all times ye People pour out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Selah Psal 62.8 He maketh these subservient one to another faith to prayer and prayer to faith as indeed they are Would you trust in the Lord at all times then pour out your souls to God Would you pour out your souls to God and pray alway then trust in the Lord at all times Hence it is that the Apostle Paul when he had spoken at a great height of faith Who hath delivered and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver c. You also helping together for us by Prayer 2 Cor. 1.11 Prayer mounts faith upon its high places and faith mounts prayer and makes one pray in his praying Unbelief is soul-fainting and prayer is a fetching fresh life from the Fountain of Life Have mercy upon me O Lord consider my troubles which I suffer of them that hate me thou that liftest me up from the gates of death Psal 13. that is Soul and Body Vse 1 Learn from hence that if faith looketh through the most dark and difficult things then where faith is not troubled People and distressed People must needs be at a great loss especially in great distresses yea the truth is in every little distress every little tryal will sinck them in whom is no faith I cannot well give the reason of it some things contemptible are very vertual to cure great diseases of which none are able to give a reason Unless this that faith twines it self with God to do for Man and all other natural abilities bear up little because they lead not the sinner out of himself but to trust in some thing of the Creature and very little burdens will break the back of a meer Man though his reason and parts and outward helps may be many Saul was bid to stay till Samuel came to him and Samuel stayed but a little beyond his time consequently his tryal was but little and he falls upon things and ways unlawful to his ruine He that believes not will make hast because he cannot see through any strait The Philistines were neer and thou didst not come and therefore 't was in vain for me to wait so Saul reasoned within himself and so will every Man that is destitute of faith Achan having no faith could not forbear but would be providing for himself when as God was before them and
Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness is very precious to that Leper which indeed and from his heart cryeth out unclean Vse 4 The last Use of this Doctrin is for Exhortation Be at this practise with this Apostle of panting and groaning under the Body of Death when the poor Woman with the Bloody Issue saw that she was not hid she came trembling to Christ Luk. 8.47 and confessed her condition and how long it had been so with her and what ineffectual means she had used and yet wasted all on them Though your corrupt nature be hid from the eyes of men and from your own eyes much to much yet not in the least hid from the eyes of Christ and therefore come trembling to him and confess all your vileness to him as far as you are able but alas what a hard task do I mention 〈◊〉 and how long you have layne in this forlorne state and do as Beggars by the High-ways sides pull off all Plaisters from every soar and take heed of hiding any sin with Fig-leaves as your Father Adam let the great Physician see and know all every putrefied soar that is not bound up nor mollified with oyntment and who knoweth but his eye may move his heart towards you to pity you and to play the good Samaritan and to dress your filthy souls and soars and to anoint them and mollifie them This I think is the meaning of the Prophet Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and look ye blinde that ye may see This is a proper work for every sinner to be at to bleed and mourn inwardly for the Fountain of sin that is in him and to bewail the many springs of wickedness which boil up bad matters Night and Day in his Soul to the grieving of the Holy Spirit Hearken to me ye that follow after righteousness ye that seek the Lord look to the roots whence ye were hewen Isa 51.1 to the hole of the Pit whence ye are digged meaning Abraham who was an Idolater and dead in trespasses and sins as well as others The Body of Death is the hole of the Pit out of which cometh all the Frogs and Locusts which crawle and swarm in your lives Many Professors not bewailing this well and throughly as they should build a brave House to look on but on the Sand which with storms falleth and the fall thereof is great The time of loss is to be lookt into and considered Damni dati tempus inspicitur And how old is our loss of God's Image How inveterate is our wound How old is the old Man as old as Methusalah The old man came into the World with you and a Miracle it is that it had not with its great weight like a Mill-stone about your Necks pressed you to your place long ago yea the old man came into the World with this world that now is and with the other world that is drowned and it will bring this to the Fire at last and from burning to burning it is very proper work to be casting tears upon such sparks as will burn to the lowest Hill Secondly 'T is needful work this to know every Man the Plague of his own heart To know it that is to sigh and groan under it as here the Apostle Paul doth When Daniel had received that sad Vision of Nebuchadnezar's ruin the lopping down of that tall Tree which reached to Heaven and the sad condition of a beast which he was to be cast into Daniel remained speechless for one hour and his thoughts troubled him and he was not able to say a word to the King but sighed and lookt sad Dan. 4.19 And an hour more it may be he would have stood sad and sighing before the King and silent if the King had not forced matter from him And this carriage was very needful to set home things upon the King's heart and to make him look about him well And would I could so preach to all you this Day and in this place who are in your natural condition If I were silent now for one hour more and did only sigh over all you carnal and unregenerate Men and Women and look sad and sometimes mourn would it not be very needful as hearts are now heardened well and deeply to affect you Certainly it would so make you look about you well before the great Lopper death come 'T is very needful work for you and me to be at this oft-bewailing our fallen state and the body of this death because we are become as Nebuchadnezar by his fall Beasts that perish even we that were in honour in higher honour than Nebuchadnezar was before his fall We are become as Beasts in some respects and much worse than Beasts in other respects We are in this state without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the World which he calls upon every one to remember Ephes 2.11 12. Wherefore remember that ye in times past were thus and thus c. Thirdly This is to go to the Root of our Disease to lay an Axe to the Root The Apostle was wise when he fell upon the main body of wickedness in him Son of man cause Jerusalem to know her abominations and say Thus saith the Lord God unto all Jerusalem thy Birth and thy Nativity is of the Land of Canaan thy Father was an Amorite and thy Mother an Hittite and thy Navel was not cut nor salted c. Ezek. 16.2 3. You cannot know your abominations as you should that is be affected with them as you should unless you look to the Root from whence they all spring and fix your eyes and your hearts there well according to this wholesome instruction of the Lord. We are by nature Amorites and Hittites as wilde as any Children of wrath as well as others and in us i.e. In our nature dwelleth no good but the seeds of all wickedness and until we thus go to the bottom we do in our humiliations but skin over soares and not search and cleanse them well This this Apostle calleth for 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out therefore the old leaven what a deal a-do there was to search out leaven and to get totally rid of it among the Jews much is said of it the Apostle would have us as industrious about corrupt nature which he calleth old leaven in all our humiliations wherein there should be soul-examinations that we should fall close upon our evil hearts and state within and smite upon them and cry out much upon them Damni dans causam damnum ipsum dedisse videtur The old leaven is the cause of all the sins and miseries we daily fall into This this therefore we should especially bewail and labour about to pluck up the root of bitterness Fourthly There is no dealing with any actual sin without effectual dealing with the body of sin To go to lave a Pool and not first to deal with the
Christ which hath an Arm like God Omnipotent By the which he went and preached to the Spirits in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 It is a very strong Prison and very filthy in which we are by nature and who can go into this Prison to preach there but Christ The Doors are all Iron and Iron-bars and Bolts upon them If any one could go into these Prisons and preach 't would have spoken the state the less deplorable but for as much as none can but Christ himself it speaks the Prison in which man is by nature very strong and terrible 'T is a great heap of filth and a very great Dung-hill indeed which all the Carts in the World imployed about at once could not carry away no none but an Infinite strength Then was a fiery Sword turning every way to keep out Adam from the Garden and from communion with God and from eating of the Tree of Life the Seal thereof and surely this misery of Man is great upon him and this fiery Sword terrible that none can sheath it and take it away and bring Man into Paradise again and communion with God but the Omnipotent Power of Christ If any could have taken away that brandished Sword or if an Angel from Heaven could have done it and have taken Adam by the hand and have brought him into the Garden of delights i.e. of communion with God the misery had not been so great They are great and fearful diseases which none in this World can cure no nor none in that World above though much more populous than this but one even Christ himself Let the Inhabitants of the Rock sing let them shout from the top of the Mountains Isa 42.11 This is spoken of them that lived in the Wilderness of Arabia among Stones and Rocks Ishmael's Posterity where nothing but wild Beasts and Devils haunt the Inhabitants were like the Country they dwelt in their Hearts Rocks and Mountains and Legions of Devils and cursed Spirits haunting them Now O how mighty must he be that drives a Wilderness How mighty must he be that bids or commands the Inhabitants of these hard Rocks to sing and melt with joy Secondly Learn that we are much obliged to Christ and God for laying the help of such desperate Diseases on one so mighty The Apostle John wept that there was none found worthy to open the Book nor to read it nor to look thereon and he wept much and when one was found out how the tone is changed They that wept much rejoyced much and sung a new Song saying Thou are worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God with thy Blood out of every Tongue and Kindred and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests Rev. 5.4.9 The opening not only of one Book but of all the Scriptures and the heart too much weeping there is among sinners about this and none is found worthy that is anointed and accepted of God to this service but Christ and he hath bought his skill dear with his own heart blood he was slain to get this art and ability Worthy art thou to receive Power c. for thou wast slain And being thus how much are we bound to this Physician for our eyes and for his eye-salve as to the light of the Scriptures and the way to any good which we have I will bring the blind by a way that they know not I will lead them in Paths which they have not known I will make darkness light and crooked things straight this will I do and not forsake them And who this is by whom God will do this see Isa 42.6.16 compared namely Christ To lead a blind Body from place to place and to do so all Day long all the Year long yea all the Life long and never to be weary how wonderfully is Man obliged to Christ and to God that hath given him to such a work Who is not tier'd to lead a blind Body a Day Thirdly Learn that it is dangerous to reject Christ because he is the appointed and proper remedy of our fallen state There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved but by the Name of Christ As there is but one Faith one Baptisme so there is but one Lord Ephes 3.5 There being no more Doors to go out from our filthy state we had need to take heed that we do not neglect it the shame of our nakedness will by such a course appear The marshy places will not be drained or healed Ezeh 47.11 i.e. we shall remain unhealed and die in our sinful state our sin will remain Ye are come to Mount Zion not to Mount Zina and to Jesus the Mediator of the New-Testament and to the Blood of Sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel See then that ye refuse not Him that spake Moses was a Mediator of the old Covenant and could do little Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant and can do all the Services of our fallen state and fulfill the great and precious promises of the New-Testament to us He that rejected that Mediator which spake on Earth died for it Heb. 12.25 How much more will they who reject this Mediator which now speaketh from Heaven to us If Christ be only he which blesseth us and turneth Jew and Gentile from their sins and God hath only raised him from the dead for this end to bring Salvation from afar and we reject all it cannot be taken well either by God the Father or by Christ his Son Vnto you first God having raised up his Son hath sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from his iniquity Act. 3.26 As if the Apostle had said God hath been at great cost and pains to part with his only Son to die and then to raise him from the dead and all for this end to bless you Jews and to turn you first and then the Gentiles from their sins and so to make them and you eternally happy If you shall reject all this love of God and love of his Son it will fall heavy he will conster it that you have no mind to be turned from your sins but to continue in them and so you shall for ever and die and perish in them He that is filthy shall be filthy still Vse 2 Try your selves Is Christ become actually yet a remedy to you Hath he delivered you from the body of this death Then as you have long groaned under the want of it so you are much taken with the mercy in any measure obtained with the freeness of it that the Waters which cleanse you should come to you through such a golden Pipe as the Blood and Wounds of Christ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle is much taken with this that the Pipes of his cleansing should be laid through the sides of Jesus Christ so costly a conveyance
both as to God and as to his Son but of none as to him I thank God all is in a good way of cure now through Jesus Christ Donatum ob causam non est donatum sed potius permutatio A gift given for some cause is not a gift but rather an exchange of one thing for another but when very costly in it self and yet of no cost to us then it sparkles in the eyes of the receiver such a gift is Christ in this great work of the cure of our carnal state And doth the freeness of this love sparkle in your eyes and lay bonds upon you and make you go bound with holy affection and admiration No man that was ever cured of a desperate disease wherein he gave himself up for death but it was much obliging to him as to the instruments used for his Cure Naaman the Syrian thought himself bound to choose the God of Israel for his God that had cured him of his Leprosie If you be cured of your filthy Leprosie which is Christ's Priestly work and Kingly work too your Cure is between them both Do you choose him and own him for your Jesus and Lord as the Apostle here doth I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ by kindness conquers as Jeptha did If I do thus and thus for you slay your Enemies deliver you from slavery Shall I be your King And will ye chuse me to rule over you and they consented willingly If Christ hath cured your Soul diseases then are you under the Law of this great kindness and willing that he should be your Lord and to Rule you in all things according to his Word Secondly The Apostle was taken as with the love of Christ so with the love of the Father in this matter I thank God he hath found out a way to do me good a new and living way through his Son So the Apostle Peter Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible 1 Pet. 1.3 He saw an abundant mercy in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ as well as in the Son our Lord Jesus Christ That having no more Sons should part with him out of his Bosom in Heaven to lodge Him in a Manger yea worse to lodg Him in Hell nay in a Place worse than that the filthy heart of the fallen Sons of Adam So the Apostle Paul again writing to the Ephesians saith But God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin and trespasses hath he quickned us together with Christ that in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus Ephes 2.4 5 6. He saw rich mercy and great love exceeding riches of grace in God that by his own Son and not by any lower hand he should quicken Men dead in trespasses and sins And surely some thing of this is where this great Work is wrought a confessing that Jesus is the Lord To the glory of God the Father Vse 3 The last Use is for Exhortation seeing Christ is the proper remedy of our fallen state let this draw us to him to attend his Word and Ordinances and to attend the Angels stirring of these Waters Christ doth open Prison doors and deliver Captives but he doth it according to his Commission Now well observe the termes of his Commission Is 61 The Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.19 By the which also he went to preach to the Spirits in Prison which were disobedient in the Days of Noah Preaching how lightly soever esteemed and how much soever opposed and suppressed is the great Ordinance by which Christ frees Captives and Prisoners and therefore this Ordinance which is the most general Ordinance to convince and convert should carefully and tremblingly be attended upon They that make light of preaching make light of their own depraved state of their Captivity to sin and Satan these groan not with this Apostle under the body of death Christ did create every day orderly by his Word he could have done it without but he did all as his Father appointed him and did not Movere per saltum make hast and pursue his own will or his own infinite and absolute Power so he doth in the new Creation and therefore wait upon wisdomes Posts Whoso is simple let him turn in hither where he will have Line upon Line now a little and then a little to touch and turn his heart Presently after the Creation was finished the Creator takes to himself the Title of Jehova Gen. 2.4 These are the Generations of the Heaven and of the Earth when they were created in the Day that Jehova Eloim made the Heaven and the Earth When you do approach to the Preaching of the Word Remember this Name of Christ that he is Jehova and able to give Being to his Word That what he bids you to be that he makes you to be Be exhorted when you attend Ordinances to pant for this thing that Christ as Jehova would Preach to you as one giving Being in your heart to every Word which he speaketh in your Ear That Christ would so speak that you might hear and believe all that he saâ—th as they at Iconium Act. 14.1 Take an Harp go about the City thou Harlot that hast been forgotten make sweet melody sing many Songs that thou mayest be remembred Isa 23.16 This spake the Lord to Tyrus a filthy sinful City and their punishment fore-told and the time for Seventy Years and then counselled to bemoan her self that she might be remembred and it is observable how holy bemoaning our selves is called and holy panting for deliverance from the slavery of sin and wrath it is called sweet melody and singing many Songs So indeed is such panting under the body of death and to be delivered from it as here the Apostle doth The mourning Doves note under the sense of our wretched state with a panting after Christ to cure it no Musick is such melody in the Ears of God to make him to remember us Thus crie and be ye all pained to be delivered Thirdly Take to you words and tell your great Physician how it is with you And if you want words help your selves with those Ephes 4.18 This I say and testifie in the Lord that ye walk not as other Gentiles in the vanity of your minds having your understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of their heart being past feeling c. Take up these words and apply them to your own depraved condition saying O wretched man that I am what a vain mind I have and how I walk in the vanity
of my mind all the Day I know not at Night where my mind hath been all the Day it hath been at this and at that at the end of the Earth but not in Heaven all the Day Children run not more from one toy to another in their action than I do in my thoughts and affections and dwell upon nothing that is good scarce a moment My understanding is darkned I know not God I know not his Son I know not the Fathers Name nor the Sons I know not the Scriptures both Testaments are a sealed Book to me I know not the Volume that is always open to me in my own Closet I know not my self nor the deceit and guile that desperately stirs in my heart continually A vail is on my heart always as to all these necessary things to be known And as my Eyes be boared out like Samson's as I have no knowledge so I have less affection I am wholly alienated from the Life of God no spiritual life and heat in my heart but as dead as Nabal yea not only a dead heart but a stony heart twice dead ten times dead nothing will make sense neither words nor blows as if I were utterly past all capacity of feeling as a Stone is This is the poor and needy seeking Water and finding none Fourthly Then when you have thus told out your broken story to your Physician then cast your selves upon Him and tell him you do so Honour his ability and all sufficiency to do as great Cures as yours is though you have not faith enough to honour his willingness to undertake your case So did the poor Leper Lord if thou wilt I know thou art able to make me whole Me though a Leper God thy Father hath highly exalted thee and given thee a Name above every name Power and ability above all to open Prisons to lead Captivity Captive to relieve the Poor to bind up broken hearted Thou canst whip out all the Worldly lusts which swarm in my heart all the mony-changing thoughts and affections which make my Soul common and lean and ill favoured There be many great and precious Promises which God hath made and the scope of them is that I should be cleansed from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and have a Divine and holy nature given me and thou O Christ art to make all these Promises yea and Amen unto me and art able to do it if thou wilt yea even in my very filthy Soul Why then is it not done Touching Christ's ability see Gen. 2.5 And every Plant before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew for the Lord had not made it to rain and there was not a Man to Till the ground The meaning is that Christ the Creator of all things the Eternal Word by which the Father commanded all things to be was not beholding to Nature or Art to make any thing that was made or to preserve it when made he made the Plants and Herbs before they were in the Earth that is he gave the Earth such a formative Vertue to shape such Plants and Flowers in her Womb and then without Rain or Man's Tillage and dressing did he preserve these for Man nor Rain were not yet created when these Plants and Herbs were actually in Beeing by his bare Word did he both make all Plants and Herbs and by the same bare Word without Rain or Tillage of Man did he make them grow and subsist Such is the Power of Christ's Word as to any distress of the Soul to raise the dead to cure the lame and blind Then in the next Place trust that it shall be done unto thee as thou needest and according to the ability of this All-sufficient Agent that he will say to thee as to the Leper I will be thou clean Adam and his Wife perceived that they were naked and were ashamed and hid themselves there Gen. 3.7 and this shame was a blessed forerunner of the great good which immediately follow the revelation of Christ to them and the Promise and the enabling of them to take hold of them For blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God If God hath opened your eyes to perceive that you are naked wretched and miserable and to groan under it as the Apostle Paul and to be ashamed of your nakedness as our first Parents and that this maketh you tremble and at an utter loss crying out Who shall deliver you 't is a sure sign that God is at hand to reveal Christ to you as he did to Adam and as he did to Paul therefore excite faith even from thy despair by and by some or other will hear thee say I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord am I escaped Motives particularly to press you to deceive and follow these Exhortations are these three First You who groan and sigh with this Apostle O wretched Man and Woman that I am c. You are particularly and specially invited as it were by name to come to Christ and to trust that he is both able and willing yea and cannot do otherwise but relieve you who ever he passeth by Come unto me all ye that are wearied and heavy loaded and ye shall finde rest to your Souls The Promise expresses to all such as you that ye shall finde relief full relief rest to your restless Souls Luk. 11.28 In this Promise observe the universality of the Invitement Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy loaded i. e. which cry out as the Apostle in my Text as lost and undone O wretched man c. All you by name are invited and therefore it will be your sin and shame not to come to Christ that is to trust that he will undertake your case and do you good Therefore as the Apostle saith as to his sufficiency so say I as to his will Having such a High Priest let us draw nigh with a true heart in full assurance of faith So say I having such a merciful High Priest yea and having such a high and precious Promise let all burdened and heart-loaded sinners draw nigh to Christ with full assurance of faith that he will give them rest Where promises are so particularly directed it is much indulgence and as a stretching out the Hand and Scepter to Esther to welcome and embolden the trembling doubting sinner yea it is as the Father of the Prodigals beholding him afar off and running to meet him Secondly Consider that Christ is not meerly under the Bond of his Promise to relieve such though this he cannot break as he cannot lie but he is under the bond of much affection in this work Husbands love your Wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that he might present it to himself spotless Ephes 5.26 No Husband can with more natural affection tender and succour the Wife of
our Death of Souls by the Famine of the Word of hearing the Word of the Lord in City and Country A great deal of do seems to be about the death of Bodies but ah Lord how many Thousand Thousand Souls have perished in this City and in these Nations in a few years past for want of hearing the Word of the Lord that is able to save the Soul Be not wrath very soar see behold we are thy People Zion is a Wilderness Jerusalem a Desolation and all our pleasant things are scattered Will the Lord refrain for these things Herein the Prophet seems to be toucht to the quick that Zion and Jerusalem was desolate and all these Soul-pleasant things were spoiled whereby Souls starved and perished and Soul-Famine and Pestilence was made a Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that whither soever they went from one City to another from one Sea to another 't was all alike This this the Prophet laid deeply to heart and so should we I urge it by way of proportion if we should deeply lay to heart bodily death then much more Soul-death and destruction A fide exorbitans puniendus saith the Civilian such as play the wanton from the truth must be punished answerably We have been and yet still are a fide exorbitantes such as play the unruly Persons from the truth Children of Belial which cannot bear Christ's Yoke full of Soul-itch for another Gospel and being thus lewd in spirituals answerably in spiritual liberties and enjoyments hath God punished us it is not a little peril unto us that we meet now although the hand of God affright such as would be looking after us This this we should deeply lay to heart that the Bread for our Souls fails from the House of our God The strokes of God and the strokes of Men together affright away the Pastors and so the Pastures of your Souls and yet all this but the just punishment of much spiritual wantonness and exorbitancy Secondly If temporal strokes which refer to the death of the body should be laid much to heart then Eternal strokes which make the everlasting destruction of the Soul should be deeply laid to heart much more Such a stroke as that Isai 63.17 O Lord Why hast thou made us to erre from thy ways and hardened our hearts from thy fear and such as that Prov. 17.10 A reproof entereth more into a wise Man than an hundred stripes into a Fool. Some Mens hearts are by the inward strokes of GOD made Judgment-proof that Plague Famine and Sword all the Ten Plagues that were inflicted on Pharaoh and Ten more to them will not stir them nor turn them no more than they stopped or turned him nor yet so much And what do you see in this day done on the hearts of Men by the hand of God abroad now of Sword Famine and Pestilence Do these enter the hearts of Men This speaks that Eternal strokes judicial wrath upon the Soul is abroad fiting Men for Eternal death much of which I fear the most of us are little aware O Juresalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen her Chicken and thou wouldst not but now they are hid from thine Eyes This was a Soul-mortal and an Eternal stroke and how Christ laid it to heart how he sighed and wept O Jerusalem And if our Gospel be hid it is hid unto them that perish saith the Apostle and how long hath thâ—s stroke been upon the Souls of most Assemblies in these Nations and else where the Power of the Gospel hid and a spurious efficacy gone forth in the place thereof faithful Labourers fishing all night and can catch nothing scarce covert a Soul and unfaithful Labourers such as come not in by the Door but come in their own name these pervert many yea though they come with never so damnable Doctrines if denying the Lord that bought them yet flockt after O give me leave to tell you in this day of God's sore Visitation Hinc illae lachrymae these are Soul-Plagues which have brought our Bodily-Plagues these are Soul mortal and eternal strokes because we have not received the truth in the love of it and no Man of us have laid these to heart as we should Spiritual Plagues and Judgments have swept away Souls by thousands all the Nations over many years together and who of us have laid this Mortality to heart as we should See how the Prophet Isaiah layeth to heart spiritual strokes Isa 24.16 17. My leanness my leanness the treacherous dealer hath dealt treacherously yea the treacherous dealer hath dealt very treacherously fear and the snare and the Pit are upon thee Treachery swearing for swearing thus in spiritual matters as Judas who betrayed Christ and as much as in him lay the Bodies and Souls of all Man-kind such treacherous dealers were the Jews which the Prophets much bewailed as great spiritual and eternal strokes and so should we as we see these on any Nation for these things are written for our learning that we should follow the foot-steps of the Flock It were well we that live in these last and worst times of the World could with the Prophet for like things sigh and say My leanness that we could sigh our selves lean this day before the Lord because of hypocrisie treachery and all Soul-villany and spiritual wickedness and the hypocrisie and treachery of our own hearts greatest of all and O how should we sigh and lament our selves lean for this ere the Plague sweep us away The next Use of this Point may be for Reproof and it may reprove two sorts 1. Such as are sensible of nothing 2. Such as are sensible of nothing to purpose First This may reprove such as are sensible of nothing or nothing sensible Temporal strokes are thick God and Man upon us Pestilence at home War abroad God and Man killing and slaughtering us one at Sea 'tother at land Is not this general Mortality God shoots his Arrows every where and how great is his dread fallen upon us In what Street of this poor City can one walk but dead Corps and Ghosts walk In what Fields about this City can one walk where death also doth not walk and as God's Bailiff seize and arrest and carry away to the great Bar above and to the Judge of all the World to receive all that they have done here in the Body good or bad At what corner of this City can we that live abroad creep in and not be met and saluted with trains of dead Corps carrying to the Grave to new Church-yards and New-exchanges old Burying-places being over-fatted and glutted and Corps inhumanely crowding one another out of their Places before the time and among all these sad salutations some righteous Men and merciful Men and Women taken away and we can tell their names and where they lived and so ends the story till the next Bill of Mortality come out with more taken away and then they
put out the talk of the other and this is our laying of matters to heart which is rather a laying them to our Heads and Tongues than to our Hearts What change do all your New-exchanges make He that was a Drunkard is so still He that was an Adulterer is so still And he that was an Hypocrite and a Formalist is so still They that were malicious to the righteous Man and to the merciful Man are so still Is it not at our peril even now to meet to Preach and Pray as we do at this time And have not righteous and merciful once been hunted from Praying even in this Plague-time And is not this our laying to heart general Mortality May not God well take those home to himself of whom we are so weary Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the Robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient to his Law Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of Battel and hath set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart Isa 42.25 So it may be said of us the hand of the Lord slayeth us round about heaps upon heaps and we walk as if we knew nothing as if it nothing concerned us Who smites upon his thigh saying What have I done to caâ—se all this What is that wickedness in my heart by which I have slain so many and so good People righteous and merciful ones Lord have mercy upon us is put up now at next Door it is now right over against me saith another but Lord have mercy upon me what have I yet in my heart amiss that hath brought the wrath of God so nigh me to stare me in the Face I will scatter them saith the Lord among the Heathen whom neither they nor their Fathers have known and I will send a Sword after them till I have consumed them and observe what follows Were they moved with this soar threat Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider ye and call for the mourning Women that they may come and send for cunning Women that they may come and let them make hast and take up a wailing Jer. 9.17 18. As if the Prophet had said unless you send for some artificial mourning here will be no mourning at all for all that God hath threatned or executed every ones heart is so dead and stone-hard and just so it is now with the most of us that certainly the Plague of the heart is much more numerous than the Plague upon our Bodies If any ask as Livy in another case Quin ad hoc accingeris But why do not People gird themselves to this thing no more Truly I know not 't is all the Plague Secondly Such are to be reproved who lay things to heart a little but nothing to purpose as when the Plague is come neer them or when they meet the white Rod and the black followers upon Neighbours nay upon strangers shoulders for fear the dead should infect their living Friends then they stand and stare and lift up their Eyes and Hands O what a doleful sight is this and others concerned for their Relations weep a while and wring their hands No Mother lost such a Child But as for sin the cause of all this Who cries out of this Who turns from this Or who enquires after Christ to take hold of him to make his peace with God that these mortal quarrels might cease How many converts by the Plague can ye shew me By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery Men break out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the Beast of the Field and the Fowl of Heaven and Fishes of the Sea yet let no Man strive nor reprove another for the People are as they that strive with the Priest therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall fall with thee in the Night Hos 4.3 4. The Dutch Notes are worth your perusal upon these words The fowlest sinners were committed by great ones and if any offered to reprove these and seek to bring them to the sense of their evil ways they were sure to be silenced and otherwise punished so far were that People from laying any thing to heart They strove with the Priest i. e. scorned his reproofs stopt his mouth imprisoned banished killed all that opposed and this was their laying to heart God's dealings with them the end was answerable they all ranks high and low perished by the wrath of GOD and common judgment and so shall we or any People who tread in their steps or else why are such Scriptures written A little laying to heart of late hath seemed to be by commanding Fire to be made in all Streets and this and this I fear is as I have said a little sense of God's hand and to very little purpose It must be other Bon-fires to purge the Heavens to clear the highest Heavens Whose heart is a fire as a righteous man as righteous Lot vexed with the unclean conversation of the wicked Who sighs and cries for his own wickedness and the wickedness of the Land and turneth from the evil of his way and looketh to him that fires the Prayers and Offerings of his People by his sweet Incense and Intercession Bad men and good men die daily and is this Preaching only turned into prating for an Hour by all you that pass by Such is dead and 'tother is dying c. And is here all One of the Cardinals having a great Bishoprick in Germany in Luther's days confessed that the Mass was not void of its faults that the Courts of Rome were corrupted that a general reformation of the Priests and Friers was necessary but that the poor rascal Monk Luther should begin all that he thought intollerable and answerably set against him so the Men of this Age will confess that there are many things amiss in all ranks but that such poor rascals should reprove them in their Sermons and lives this this is now not to be endured Prisons are too good for such and the Cure is worse than the Disease And this is all the sense that these wise men have of matters amiss which is little sense but to no purpose Vse 3 Let us make use of this Doctrine in the next Place to try our selves by it Are you such as lay to heart the hand of God now the taking away of righteous and wicked merciful and un-merciful Men In most Houses are dead Bodies if not yet in every House as in Aegypt In your Houses it may be are or have been dead Bodies and now some dying Are ye sensible what dead Souls ye have and how hard to be raised from the dead How much alive to evil quickly but as Nabal as dead-hearâ—ed as a stone to
all good to the great good Christ and to the embracing of him Some are well and yet still offering their hand to the Physician saith Seneca their hearts being like a Pond after a storm a long while trembling Some are not Soul well the Plague of a hard heart being on them and their sores and swellings daily to be seen without searching for and yet never offer their Pulse to any to feel them but judge themselves well and their state good which confidence is carnal and an evident token of an impenitent and insensible heart If ye say that ye have no calamity in your Families nor Death in your Houses yet Death is much in the dwellings of many others How do ye lay this to heart God doth whip some upon others backs and this is tender mercy and should be the more melting and abasing and drawing to Christ as Cords of great love Is it thus with you How the Prophet Jeremiah was affected with the calamity of others especially as he saw it did no good upon their Souls which was an evident token how well it wrought upon his Soul though others smarted yet he laid to heart and profited My bowels my bowels I am pained at my very heart my heart maketh a noise in me I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard O my Soul the sound of the trumpet and the alarum of War Destruction upon destruction is cryed for the whole Land is spoiled suddenly are my Tents spoiled and my Curtains in a moment How long shall I see the Standard and hear the sound of the Trumpet for my People is foolish they have not known me they are sottish Children they have no understanding they are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Jer. 4.19 20. Let us apply these words to our selves do not we lie in such an ill frame of Spirit Are not our hearts though God's hand be so heavy still sottish and sensless of all that whereby we have provoked God to do all this against us Very wise and quick to see the Moat in others Eyes and to lay the blame at others doors You will say so did Jeremiah in this Scripture which you have quoted I answer That the Prophet did see provocations abroad it is true but that it was not without looking well to his own heart see Jer. 12.1 2 3. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Wherefore are all they happy which deal very treacherously Thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art neer in their mouths and far from their Reins but thou O Lord knowest me and seen me and tryed my heart towards thee pull them out like Sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the Day of slaughter As if he had said thou knowest right well that I have frailties and infirmities many yet thou also knowest that I bewail them and in all things I endeavour to approve my self to thee by thy help and would do nothing to provoke thee in this Day Can we thus approve our selves to GOD now Vse 4 Let the last Use of this Doctrine be for Exhortation Be sensible and lay to heart this mortal time and this dying day the many thousands of all sorts good and bad which now are swept away Let it not be said that the Graves are wide open Hell is wide open but our hearts are still fast shut Righteous and merciful Men as well as profane drunken covetous Nabals are taken away but none lay to heart one or the other If the Prophets charge in my Text should be found a true charge against us alass for us we are all dead Men and Women and no escaping Wherefore stir up your selves weep not for the dead but weep for your selves saying alass alass what have I done How do I live that so many die where I dwell Do not I infect the Parish my Family this City And be close home in these Queries and in these Heart-smitings for surely if we did judge our selves as we should every one in truth we should not thus continually be judged of the Lord. The Bells tole and ring in your ears every Morning and Evening but is there nothing else sounds in your Ears No Achan no accursed thing that yet your hearts hide and cleave so fast to And will not yet though thus affrighted part with A dreadful sound is in his ears Job 15.21 in prosperity the Destroyer shall come upon him said Eliphaz to Job he speaks to Job as to a worldly Man catcht in his worldly ways You have had worldly ways and tumblings all over the World you Citizens and now you are at leisure and quiet Do you not hear some dreadful sound in your ears of sin in this and in that you have complained for want of leisure now you have leisure pray lissen well now to your consciences what dreadful reports they are ready to make at the great Bat above against you O lay these to heart well for these have slain you and us now in all that is dear and will slay yet all the remnant unless we all repent The Prophet Elija by killing two Captains and their Fifties brought the third Captain upon his knees and to humble himself whether in truth I know not but he saved his life by it and the lives of his Fifty men O that Christ by killing so many Thousands so many Eight Thousands and so many Five Thousands might bring the rest upon their knees indeed to him he got his life and we should get our lives and our Souls and so would the Plague as a Plague not come nigh our dwelling Secondly Let me exhort you to lay to heart the import of these general strokes that one and all are so cut off wicked and righteous These kind of general strokes do import that we all have sinn'd and have much provoked God one as well as another Righteous Men and merciful Men have not been so holy and righteous and so merciful as we should Behold the Days come saith the Lord That I will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised Aegypt and Juda and so puts them together and then Edom and Ammon and Moab and Israel with them which are in the uttermost parts of the Earth For all these Nations are uncircumcised in Flesh and all the House of Israel are uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.25.26 Some Men are outwardly and openly stark naught and the best of us it seems are not so good at heart as we should be this let us lay to heart all of us Or else the import of this general mortality is that God means to harden the hearts of some much by slaying the good as well as the bad that they who have no mind to repent and change their courses may be confirmed and encouraged in them in as much as
well in fair weather as in fowl saith Seneca but so doth not the Soul Thou hast made a Hedge about Job Doth he serve thee for naught No thou dost give him much and so hire him to serve thee do but take away as thou hast given to him and he will curse thee to thy face so saith God all he hath is in thine hands and then again saith touch his Bone and his Flesh and he will curse thee c. Take away Estate and take away health health and wealth and then questionless he will forsake such a hard Master and yet Satan was deceived Job held his integrity and now Job goes for current Coin in the Lords account Hast thou considered my Servant Job that he is a just Man and upright c. Though thou hast moved me against him without cause such an instance is David Thou didst thrust sore at me that is Satan because he saith that he thrust sore at him that he might fall but the Lord helped me Psal 118.13 God afflicts sore sometimes and then the Devil thrusts sore to shipwrack Conscience some way or other and thus doth God try Men sometimes to know all that is in their heart There is a Nursery at a great Dukes seat abroad which is called Schola illustris Great afflictions are the great God's Schola illustris that in and by which he makes the integrity of Men appear that is all the graces of Men in their true glory According to that 1 Pet. 1.7 That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour at the appearing of Jesus Christ Barbils taken among Rocks are brave Fish and have their right colour Thirdly God brings all afflictions on Men yea on good Men to humble and to mortify Our Fathers were worried with all afflictions in the Wilderness forty Years together as to prove them so to humble them to pull down pride and stubborness and to make them long much for Canaan the Land of Rest And Job was kept at such a distance in all his conflicts as to try him so to humble him and abase him for his heart was too high What good Man's heart is not The Sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite spirit such sacrifices in Religion God likes well Psal 51.17 He doth not despise low humble bleeding sinners that is he doth not worry and sleight to see them because they are as Wheat ground small enough to be Bread fit for their Masters Table David when his bones were all broken that is soul and body much afflicted then he begins to talk of a broken spirit when our conditions are high our spirits are so too and to bring the one low the Lord is forst to bring the other low too Paul that was a high confident Man God was fain from Heaven to fell him to the Earth and afterward to keep him low and humble was fain to let loose corruptions of nature and buffitings of Satan that by these thornes in his sides he might prick out and let out all the swelling windy conceits of himself and of his own holiness and goodness and usefulness which fluttered in his heart Mephibosheth being a Criple how humbly he speaks And he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead Dog as I am 2 Sam. 9.8 So when God Criples us in all things wherein we may be of use to him estate health inward and outward and yet keeps on a secret support and kindness though not sensible Oh how humble it makes the Man What a dead Dog am I that the Lord should regard me to do the least favour for me the ground is too good to bear me Naturali praevalet accidentale Sometimes accidental things prevail against natural accidental rods and punishments prevail against Natural Corruptions and Sins Secondly As God doth bring all afflictions to mortify pride so to mortify other sins to which our natures are too too prone to pluck up all sin by the roots well especially hypocrisie with which we do best play with in the matter of humiliation and mortification and renewing faith and repentance till the Lord swinge us indeed with all his Rods and long David though a good Man was beaten till he roared and made to roar all the Day long and Night and Day was God's hand heavy on him and his moisture turned into the drought of Summer to make him acknowledg and confess some special sin which lay hid and was kept close till a Fire was kindled in his bones then he confessed and spit out the sweet morsel which he tumbled in his mouth so long Psal 32.5 In some bad matters we are very bad and naught and ready to make excuses and defences and to hide our sin this way as Adam 't is but a little one and I do not use it it is but now and then when I meet with such bad company All afflictions and smart Rods are but few enough in these cases to make us speak out and do out as we should and to make such clearing our selves in these bad matters as becometh Penitents Sometimes of the year in Ethiopia when most hot their Silver waxeth Lead and no cover of any rich matter can endure saith the Historian And truly I may more fitly spiritualise it sometimes when the entisements of some sins most sutable to our nature are strong and hot through Satan's Fire-Darts all our silver becomes lead 1 All our graces Faith and love and courage fails and become corrupted and bribed by the sin which so easily besets and then is God enraged and layeth about him as a jealous God and taken up all his Rods and layeth them on as with all his might and all little enough to kill pleasing sin and beloved sin at the Root to dis-heart it well He makes a great Fire to purify well and make the scum come all out as it should When the Children of Ammon saw that they stank before David then they sent to him the Syrians 2 Sam. 10.6 So till a Sinner by the many punishments of God seeth that he stinks in the Nostrils of God he doth not raise forces against his sin as he should 1 He doth not set hmself to repent of it and clear and cleanse his afflictions throughly of it as he should by faith in the death of Christ They say of the Spaw Waters broad that they are not so pleasant as wholesome so I may say of afflictions that they are not so pleasant as wholesome Inutile per inutile perimitur Thirdly As God brings afflictions upon Men yea upon good Men to mortify sin well so to mortify them well to all the natural good things of this World and so to make them indeed dead with Christ to all here As the Nurse puts bitter things on her breasts to take off the Child from the sweet milk and put his mouth out of relish and